The UK and France have agreed a £662m deal aimed at strengthening efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats, including deploying additional riot-trained police and advanced surveillance technology along the French coast. Under the three-year agreement, British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to sign the deal with French authorities on Thursday.
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The plan includes sending at least 50 officers trained in riot and crowd-control tactics to French beaches where tensions with migrants and people smugglers have sometimes escalated.
Expanded patrols and surveillance
The agreement also commits France to deploying new equipment to track smuggling operations and intercept migrants attempting the journey to Britain. This includes drones worth millions of pounds, two additional helicopters and a new camera monitoring system.
Officials say the measures are designed to identify and disrupt people-smuggling networks while preventing migrants from boarding boats on the northern French coastline.
The deal will significantly increase the number of personnel involved in the operation. Nearly 1,100 law enforcement, intelligence and military officers will be deployed in northern France once the agreement takes effect this summer. That represents an increase of about 42% compared with the previous arrangement.
French authorities will also provide a new vessel and more than 20 additional maritime officers to target so-called “taxi boats”, which collect migrants already waiting in shallow waters before taking them across the Channel.
Funding tied to results
Of the £662m package, £501m will be spent on expanding beach patrols and enforcement operations. A further £160m will be made available if the strategy proves effective in reducing crossings.
For the first time, UK ministers have said about £100m of the funding could be redirected or withdrawn after a year if French authorities fail to significantly reduce the number of people attempting the journey.
Mahmood said the UK-France partnership had already prevented tens of thousands of migrants from setting off towards Britain but argued further action was necessary.
“Our work with the French has stopped tens of thousands of illegal migrants boarding boats headed to Britain,” she said. “But we must do more. This landmark deal will stop illegal migrants making the perilous journey and put people smugglers behind bars.”
Political criticism and rising crossings
Opposition politicians criticised the agreement, arguing the UK government was committing large sums without firm guarantees.
Conservative MP Chris Philp, the party’s shadow home secretary, said the government was handing over “half a billion pounds of our money with no conditions at all”, adding that France should receive funding only if it stops most attempted crossings.
Channel crossings have risen in recent years. A total of 41,472 people arrived in the UK by small boat in 2025.
So far in 2026, more than 6,000 people have reached the UK by this route. On Saturday alone, 602 migrants arrived in Dover on nine boats.
The previous UK-France agreement, signed in 2023, provided £476m to support patrols along the French coast and involved around 700 officers monitoring beaches to disrupt smuggling gangs.
Debate over broader migration policy
Political parties and advocacy groups remain divided over how to address the crossings.
Reform UK figures have argued Britain should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to allow stricter migration enforcement. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats say the focus should be on dismantling smuggling networks and establishing large-scale returns agreements with France.
Humanitarian groups warn that policing alone will not stop migrants attempting the dangerous journey. The Refugee Council said the lack of safe legal routes to Britain forces vulnerable people to rely on smugglers and small boats.
Separately, the Labour government signed a “one-in-one-out” arrangement with France in August 2025 allowing the UK to return some migrants who arrived by boat while accepting an equivalent number of asylum seekers from France who had not attempted the crossing.
By February this year, 305 people had been returned to France under the scheme, while 367 had been admitted to the UK.
The government also said nearly 60,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals have been removed or deported since it took office.
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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 23 April 2026
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